Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the partial primary amino acid sequence of the N-terminal amino acids of ANUP after removal of the N-terminal pyroglutamyl residue. This antitumor cytokine is present in human granulocytes and is excreted from the serum into the urine, since the protein is also present in the serum.
Generally in accordance with the present invention, the electrophoretically homogeneous ANUP (monomer 16 KD) is treated with pyroglutamyl aminopeptidase to liberate the free N-terminal amino group. The deblocked protein is transblotted and the amino acid sequence of the electrophoretically homogeneous deblocked protein is determined.